Alchemic Testgrounds - RPLOG
From Rusted Promises
Participants
Date
10/10/475
Log
Bite stands alone outside the castle gates, practicing magery by trying to clip a bird with a mighty gust of wind. She wouldn't waste if of course but she would cook it up with some fire magics, but her attempts thus far are thwarted by very alert avians. Her clan crest sticks off of her clothing, her cloak shed for the heat.
Kilsa smiles and walked up to her reptile friend, "Hey friend! How have you been?" She smiled widely and moved in to hug her friend, "I've not seen you in so long." She said sadly.
Moroko arrives with a clunkety clunk, clunk of heavy armor. It appears the inquisitive mage adept is picking up some additional skills as he inspects his musket absently. He blinks as he spots bite throwing wind at birds. He offers, "You should try water. Harder to get up there but if you splash them it's twice as funny." He says thankful Sveta isn't around. He smiles and inclines his head to Kilsa.
Darquan has not been seen in some time. He has been keeping mostly to himself these last few weeks, if not a month or two. To see him now would probably be a surprise to those who've known him, yet here he is in nothing more than a kilt. He says nothing while he joins the gathering, watching and listening in silence.
Zevran approaches the small group, adorned in heavy armor. The large blade he is rarely seen without is strapped to his back in its usual position. He takes a moment to glance over the group before spotting two folk that he recognizes. He gives a friendly smile to Kilsa, and a nod to Darquan.
Petey comes loping along at a comfortable rate, seemingly trailing not far behind Kilsa. To combat the heat, the otter seems to be sweating powerfully into his clothes, ugh, but what can be done about that? "Is this the one you mentioned, m'lady?"
Bite giggles and hugs Kilsa. "I've been cooped up researching the tales of the Kitsune, i'm sorry sssweetie we really will have to catch up after this." she hisses before giggling at Moroko. "That wouldn't be half as challenging." She looks ovre Darquan and then waves to himi and Zevran before looking over Petey. "New retainer?" she quizzes before looking out the gate. "So you remember the thing that attacked in the desert? We have to go look into that, are you all ready?"
Darquan grunts, "I am as ready as anyone can expect to be." Unlike the others in the group, he does not have anything resembling weapons or armor. He must have something else in mind or something. The nod from Zevran is returned and he smiles to the Rhino, "Hello again. How did the tournament go? I missed it by a wide margin."
Kilsa smriked at Bite, "This is Peter, He is in the process of courting me and is also becoming a friend of mine." She said proudly as she listend to Bite. "I'll be prepared this time." She smiled and raised her hammer. "Any ideal if something new is out there or will we be dealthing with the same creatures?"
Petey bobs his head, "She is my retainer," he says, "She retains my heart. I'm afraid it will be a permanent possession of hers." Romantic, with a side of corn. "So what is it we're doing?" he asks, glancing around curiously.
Zevran groans. "The desert? I knew I should have brought lighter armor." He says, although the smile on his face shows he is joking. "I'm always ready." He says confidently. "I won. Sort of." Zevran replies to Darquan's inquiry.
Moroko considers this quietly at Bite's comment, "Is it probably going to attack us?" He asks as he crouches down and starts ruffling through his backpack looking through a few soul gems along with the related gear. His nose wriggles absently as he contemplates. He smiles easily enough nodding to to the other arrivals. He laughs softly and grins to Petey, "Well I'm sure we all wish you the best of luck on taming the savage....erhh Lady." He considers that and shrugs.
Bite nods. "Those things, explosions, and a strange man have been seen out there lately." She giggles once and gives Petey a whisper and then leads the party out of the gate, full and ready. First they must pass through the farmland to reach the meadows of course.
Darquan reaches out to clap the Rhino on a shoulder, "Congratulations, even though it is very late in coming." He follows Bite then, "So what is it that I have been missing out on? From what I've just overheard it sounds like this thing, or things, have been encountered previously."
Kilsa chuckles at Bite and looked at her, "This time I will not be a liability to everyone." She growled a bit and hefted her hammer over her soldier. "I've been looking at taking another crack at those creatures." She raised an eyebrow when Bite whispered to Petey. "Hmm."
Petey tilts his head at Bite a moment, but is then moving to keep up with the rest of the group. The short otter's feet move twice as fast to keep pace with the larger folk.
Moroko offers to Kilsa and smiles faintly, "It appears there seems to be something of an alliance or pact against you Lady Kilsa." He offers in amusement especially as he switches his robe and then stands taller inspecting his staff and smiling as his hand flexes and he feels the wind coming to it and he moves to follow Bite.
Zevran nods his head at Darquan's congratulations. "Thanks." He replies before following Bite. He waits to hear any explanation of what they might encounter.
The farmland is relatively quiet, a few cackles in the distance but nothing to be afraid of. Bite rechecks her gear on the way, pulling free a bundle of jerky which she begins to pop into her mouth. "They've been seen before but are relatively hard to find, they come up by chance. Kilsa can tell you all about them I bet." she hisses and giggles. "It looks like she plans to mash them up."
Darquan chuckles, "I have nothing against the Lady Kilsa. In fact, I still have not yet stopped by the Orphanage to get together with Danny, that PitBull kid. I hope he has been keeping himself busy?"
Kilsa chuckles at Darquan, "Yes he is but he is looking forward to testing you with his wooden maul he wilted himself. While he is a little more friendly he still has a tendency to show his canine urge to be top dog. Though he does keep the younger kids safe, he is a good kid but he hasn't got over his urge to try and show that he is stronger than his father by beating me." She smiled, "You should see him soon." She winked. "Hey Peter are you keeping up ok?" She looked to the otter with a wide grin.
Zevran seems relatively quiet as they reach the farmlands. "Kilsa won't have much to mash up if I get there first." Zevran chuckles, cracking his knuckles. He returns to travelling in silence.
Moroko listens to the tales as they walk. He occasionally gets distracted by leaves or other shiny objects, "Oooh." He'll pause make a note in his book and then yelp as he notes the others getting ahead and hurrying to follow.
Petey scurries along after them all, "I'm doing alright, madame. I'm just used to sailing," which had considerably less walking across dry plains, what's up with that?
Bite smiles. "Sailor?" she hisses and looks to Petey. "So are you going to become that creature we fought sssweetie?" she asks to Kilsa as they proceed through the farmland. Not long now and they'll break into the meadows.
Kilsa chuckles at Bite, "If he does I would still romance him." She chuckled and reach over to scratch Petey on his chin. "I think we would make a cute monster but I would perfer him as his handsome self." She grinned and winked at the otter, not even remotely bothered by walking so much in full armor.
Moroko manages to restrain from an otter in every port joke. Instead he hurries a bit more after the group and tucking his book into one of his myriad robe pockets.
Darquan eyes Bite and Kilsa, "Become the creature? How is that possible? I didn't know we had any transformation math. How is that accomplished?"
Petey looks a little confused at the discussion ongoing, "What creature are we talking about?" he asks curiously, "And there are the divine family maths," he then points out, "One of my distant cousins became a dragon a few months ago."
Kilsa and looked at Darquan, "A monster that myself and Bite faced recovering a massive gem that would pave the way to the dual soul gem pendants such as this one." She pointed to the pendant around her neck with two slots for gems, "Needless to say we both nearly lost our lives to a sick but tragic hybrid of two lovers." She smiled, "I also learned that when something is trying to eat me underwater I swim almost as good as a water folk." She smirked at Petey and Darquan.
The party arrives in the meadows, and Bite looks to the group. "So could anyone here spot holes if we need to, we found some the last time we were here." she hisses. She looks to the group expectantly.
Moroko considers that, "Spot holes? That I don't know. I could probably fill the area with flame." He offers brightly. See? Helpful!
Darquan shudders a bit while he hears the explanation, "I don't think I would have wanted to consider where I would be if I was part of that little adventure. I may be a gator, but I have not tested myself with any swimming attempts. I am a bit slow when it comes to battle, if you hadn't noticed already." He smiles to her and finally asks Petey, "You want a ride on my back, for a little while at least?" An offer for a piggy-back ride? At the meadows he responds to Bite, "I'd more than likely fall down one if any were present."
Petey looks quite uncertain at Darquan's offer, "You are most kind, but my ego prevents me from accepting." At least he is honest in motivation, "I will survive a little exertion, and maybe grow from it." A broad otter smile is offered.
Zevran listens silently to the conversation about the monster. "If you consider stepping in them to be the same as spotting them, then I suppose I could." Zevran jests, warily watching where he places his feet as he walks.
Kilsa nodded proudly, "Good on you Peter." She smiled at the otter and gave him a friendly wink. "Darquan your a gator that has trouble swimming? I'm shocked but then again you are the heavy clan rather than the water." She smirked, "And as a sister of your clan I know most of us aren't swimmers."
Darquan chuckles, "I never bothered to learn how to swim. I was always on land and never had an interest in the water." He shrugs, "Go figure, right?"
Bite giggle and shrugs. "We'll just have to be careful and alert then sssweethearts, lets get going." she says and leads the group onward. The meadows are the bigger portion of the trek. She sways as she walks, watching the ground slightly as she does so.
Moroko purses his lips as he moves to follow carefully padding on his feet his brows furrowed in concern as they enter the untrustworthy looking water.
Petey scratches under his chin, "I may have missed it being mentioned, but what is it we are looking for?" he asks, eyes sweeping across the horizon, then down towards his feet.
Zevran continues to follow after Bite, listening to the conversation. "Something to punch, I hope. It's been a while since I've had a good fight." He replies to Petey, glancing around the meadow again.
Darquan chuckles, "Been a while, eh?" He turns toward the Rhino and walks backward while speaking, "You wanting to spar a bit after we're done here, by chance?'
Kilsa chuckles, "I Would love to host another tournament if your looking for a taste of violence." She smiled sweetly at the pair. "Maybe a cash prize this time?" She grinned, "The children has been asking for another one since the last one was done." She nodded.
Bite points out what looks like a freshly filled hole. "Maybe someone found them before us?" she quizzes as she passes it. Similar sights scatter the horizon, prompting a couple glances. "I wonder what they were for." As they walk the ground gives way to Zevran and Petey, dropping them at least 8 feet.
Darquan is about to say something else when the ground gives way for two of the group. He instantly takes a dive to try and catch the otter before he goes too far down. It probably helped that he was already facing them in the first place.
Moroko is inspecting the filled hole curiously looking thoughtful when he feels the ground shake. He stumbles for a moment and then blinks turning, "Oh... Oh that's not good! Anyone have any rope?" He asks as he looks for something to secure a rope to.
Zevran notes the newly filled holes, glad that he won't be stepping in them. "It's a good thing somebody filled these holes up. Somebody could get hurt." He says, gesturing to a couple of the holes before the ground gives way beneath him. There is a loud thud as he hits the bottom. "I'm okay." Zevran manages to say as he stands up, his head already near the top of the hole. He takes a moment to dust himself off before looking around.
Kilsa gasps as petey and Zevran fall into the hole, "Are you ok?" She reaches down her warhammer to help him up. "Grab on and I'll pull you out." She looked at Zevran, "You can climb out right?" She asked the much taller male as she attempted to get the otter out safely.
Squeak, says the otter, dropped as he is, skidding along to the bottom of the abrupt passage with a final squawk as the ground breaks hit fall most kindly. A moment of quiet before he gets his stars in order, "Can I get a hand please?" he calls up, making an attempt to climb that fails before it starts.
The meadows are relatively free of things to tie ropes to. Darquans quick acting nearlyl sends him over the edge and fails to keep the otter from falling very far, but with aid from Bite and Kilsa Petey is hauled to safety. Zevran remains, the heavy clan much harder to remove.
Darquan is not sorry he made that dive, for he at least did something to try and help the smallest member of the group....even though it proved futile in the end. Fortunately he didn't go too far and wind up down the hole as well, or that would have been quite problematic. Groaning a little he backs away carefully and gets to his feet again, "You able to see anything down there, Zevran, or is it too crowded to even crouch?"
Zevran looks up at the others surrounding the hole. "It's a bit dark down here. I might be able to get a better look if I had a torch." Zevran replies to Darquan, before placing his hand on the wall and tracing the circumference of the hole as he looks for any irregularities in the wall. "I should be able to climb out though." He says to the group.
Moroko watches people scramble and help recover the duo from the hole. He seems content then to lean on his staff and just watch out the area to see if anything troublesome has noticed the group.
Petey is grateful to be drawn from the hole, shaking himself out of dust and dirt before he moves over to where their friend is stuck. He frowns a little, but doesn't immediately move to throw a hand down.
The walls are smooth and the inside of the hole is vacant. Bite tries her best to aid Zevrans escape.
Darquan shakes his head, "Sorry, I don't have any torches on me." He does settle to a crouch and try to look down the hole with everyone else. It doesn't take him long to turn his gaze outward when he realizes everyone has their attention on the Rhino's predicament. He's not acting as lookout for the present time.
Zevran doesn't find anything as he explores the hole. He looks up at the edge, stretching his arm towards it to see if he can reach. He drops his arm after his fingers touch the edge, crouching down. He pushes up with his legs and trows his arms over the edge, using his upper body strength to haul himself out of the hole. As he crawls out, he rolls over to his back. "I shouldn't have worn heavy armor today." He says, taking a few breaths before standing up.
Kilsa checks Zevran as he gets out of the hole, "Are you ok?" She asked after seeing both of them take a tumble into the whole. "What do you think caused the hole?" She asked curious as to if something was going to attack them like last time.
Petey moves up towards the hole once it's evacuated, getting low, almost all fours and peeking inside for clues a moment before looking out and about, circling carefully in search.
Bite shakes her head. "We've got something else to investigate for the time being sssweetie, we'll have to look on the way back." With the team out of the hole and ready to go, they soon reach the edge of the desert. As the grass gives way they can see large craters where the sand has been blown away in irregular patterns, and in the distance twin explosions can be heard, and faintlyl seen as sand particles fly through the air.
Darquan follows the leader of the group to the edge of the plains. With the desert so very obvious ahead of them, what with the increasing heat and all, he can't help but smile, "I hope everyone has something to help them cool off. The heat is calling to me, I must admit that." He cocks his head after the sand flies far ahead, "I take it whatever is causing that is our target?"
Moroko tilts his head up watching the particles fly and blinks, "That doesn't sound pleasant." He says frowning as he glances around to the others to see their reactions.
Zevran pulls a waterskin from his pack and takes a quick drink as they reach the desert, before putting the waterskin back in its place. He surveys the craters before focusing his attention on the sound of explosions and particles of sand in the distance. "Something to fight? Fantastic." He states eagerly, curling and uncurling his fingers in anticipation.
Petey lifts his shoulders, "Let us see this as the Creators' work. We have no doubt where we want to go." He points towards the obvious explosions, and gets to marching across the hot sands, adding a new layer of sweat.
Kilsa looks ahead, "The Creators work in Mysterious..... No. Its seems that something is up to no good. Lets follow this divine sign to see what all the noise is about." She joked and patted Petey's back, eager to see what was going on herself.
Bite begins prepping magic as they walk, unwilling to go unprepared. As they approach the previous explosions another blast of sand and sound are very apparent in the near distance. Almost simultaneously the sand beneath the group begins to shift, swirl, and sink. Travel turns to a struggle to keep from sinking and a bellow can be heard beneath them all.
Darquan looks down as the bellow is heard from under them all, brow rising, "Either something is beneath us and is protesting the noise, or there is something under us making noise and goading whatever is ahead onward." It's all that he can do to keep his footing, especially as sand is more than likely getting into the tiny crevaces of his scales and causing him to scratch in those spots.
Zevran stumbles as the sand shifts underneath him. He struggles to keep his footing, which is a bit difficult in his heavy armor. "I wonder what sort of monster would make that noise." Zevran pondered the bellow as he continued to fight to maintain his footing and not sink.
Moroko smiles mildly, "Oh, that'll be nice. Two monsters for the price of one." He offers and not unlike Bite extends his hands working his fingers and beginning to draw upon the mathematics of his magic. He blinks and feels the swirling. He tries to move a bit faster searching for solid ground cursing, "This... isn't going to be pleasant. Probably a Dragon. It's always dragons."
Petey flops, then makes like a fish, swimming with his partially webbed fingers against the oncoming tide, trying to find purchase and safety in swimming. What else is an otter to do?
Kilsa growls as she begins to sink, "Hmmmm..... I've not dealt with this before." She freezes to avoid sinking any fasting, "Ideals guys? Because I would like not to die in such a odd manner." She grumbles.
Petey is quickly coated in the shifting sands, the consitency all wrong for swimming. Eyes appear from the sand and a massive creature rears up, displacing even mroe sand and sending our heros waist deep at least. It resembles an alchemic mishap, and although some members of the party may recognize it it is roughly four times the size it was previously, towering above the sand. Another bellow escapes the creature as it whips sand at our heros. Bite doesn't hesitate to release her explosive magics, taking a chunk of goopy sand from it's mid-section.
Darquan loses his balance entirely as the sand shifts again while the creature is rising. THe sand ends up rising to his chest instead of just his waist after he falls. Eyes go wide as the creature reveals itself, never having seen something so...large...before. It simply doesn't take him very long to struggle against the shifting sand to get to his feet, the heat of the desert sand warming him up quite well..and getting into places it simply should not.
Zevran watches as the large creature rises from the sand. His attention is drawn to the creature, and he does not notice himself becoming sunk waist-deep in the sand. "I vote we punch it until it doesn't get up." Zevran replies to Kilsa as he draws his sword from its sheathe on his back. He prepares to charge, but his legs seem to be stuck. "It's always something." He mutters disappointedly, glancing down and noticing he is stuck waist-deep in the sand. He struggles to free himself from the shifting sands before charging at the monster and aiming a horizontal slash at it. Of course, the shifting sand lowers his speed quite a bit during the charge as he attempts to not fall over.
Moroko yelps as the sand continues to flow around with him starting to half bury. Moroko scrambles trying to get up higher even as he takes a moment and closes his eyes and begins forming the the mathematics. It takes a few moments but then MArco's unleashing a fairly hefty fireball in the direction of the abomination, "Fascinating!" He says as he does so.
Kilsa growls and attempts to wade over to the monster with fire in her eyes and her hammer held high. As she get closer she begins casting explosive force for when she gets into range of the Abomination. "I'm going to give you mercy you poor sick thing." She give a prayer as she wades throught the dense sand.
The creature responds to Zevran's slow approach by shifting slightly and collapsing onto his form with force, driving him down into the sand with a mighty smack. As it decends it is clipped by a fireball. An explosion by Kilsa barely misses the creature, creating a crater in the sand not unlike what they have seen before. A trail forms in the sand as it repositions behind the heros.
Darquan gets to his feet again, only to see that one of their own is effectively engulfed by the creature as it crashes down. Growling, he watches the trail as the creature shifts and shouts at it, "Bring him back!" He follows the path it travels, huffing and puffing while wanting to sink his claws or teeth into the thing. Blasted sand!
